The political, media and business elites of Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal
ran this country for almost its entire history. But in the last few
years, they have lost their power, and most of them still do not realize
it’s gone. The Laurentian Consensus, a name John Ibbitson coined for
the dusty liberal elite, has been replaced by a new, powerful coalition
based in the West and supported by immigrant voters in Ontario. So what
happened?

Great global migrations have washed over Canada. Most people are unaware
that the keystone economic and political drivers of this country are
now Western Canada and the immigrants from China, India, and other Asian
countries who increasingly are turning Ontario into a Pacific-oriented
province. Those in politics and business have greatly underestimated how
conservative these newcomers are, and how conservative they are making
our country. Canada, with an ever-evolving and growing economy and a
constantly changing demographic base, has become divorced from the
traditions of its past and is moving in an entirely new direction.

In The Big Shift, John Ibbitson and Darrell Bricker argue that
one of the world’s most consensual countries is polarizing, with the
west versus the east, suburban versus urban, immigrants versus old
school, coffee drinkers versus consumers of energy drinks. The
winners—in politics, in business, in life—will figure out where the
people are and go there too.

This event is being co-sponsored by the Faculty of Arts, LISPOP and the Department of Political Science.